Eric Kripke’s hit Prime Video series ended on several cliffhangers heading into the fifth and final season.
Homelander, played by Antony Starr, in ‘The Boys’ season 4.
Amazon Studios
The Boys have been dispersed across their weird and violent universe. The fourth season of the hit Amazon Prime series — spoiler alert! — ended with all of the Boys, except for Starlight and Butcher, being captured at Homelander’s order — and The Boys viewers are likely going through some Supes vs. vigilantes’ withdrawal. And it’s going to be a minute before creator Eric Kripke is ready to return with the final season.
It will likely take a year or more before the fifth and final season returns. (A new prequel series, meanwhile, is also on the horizon.) So, The Hollywood Reporter scoured the real universe to suggest seven super-ish, quirky, powerful and strange alternate shows to watch that can tie fans over until Hughie, New Black Noir and the rest of the vigilante heroes and their foes return.
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Supacell (Netflix)
Image Credit: Netflix This six-episode British series created by South London Rapper and director Rapman has given Netflix one of it fastest-rising streaming hits. Supacell follows five young residents trying to navigate the daily ups and downs in a working-class community of London. The five are a nurse, gang member, a parcel delivery driver, a convicted felon who is trying to reassimilate into society, and a young man who hustles on the streets selling weed. They have nothing in common except one thing: a relative of theirs had the sickle cell trait that often strikes people of the African Diaspora. But in their case, that disease mutated inside of them and gave each one unique superpowers — from time-jumping to becoming invisible to having super-human strength. They must ban together to save themselves (and the world) from a sinister source. Rapman doesn’t consider his show, inspired after the death of George Floyd, a superhero series, but more of a sci-fi drama. “You have people that compare it to Misfits or Heroes, or some even say [The Boys spinoff] Gen V. But I think the fact that it’s set in south London, has a predominantly Black cast and is more grounded than the rest of them, I think it’s one-of-a-kind,” he recently told THR.
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Batman: Caped Crusader (Prime Video)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Amazon From the minds of executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves and Sam Register, this animated tale of Batman will bring its audience to the beginnings of the crimefighter’s storyline (premiering Aug. 1 on Amazon Prime). In an interview with Empire magazine in February, Timm said that this version of the Caped Crusader’s story will focus more on him finding his way after taking on Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego for only a couple of weeks. “I wanted to make him kind of weird, and spooky,” Timm said. “If you’re stuck in a room with Batman, whether you’re Commissioner Gordon or Barbara Gordon or Renee Montoya, you don’t feel comfortable. You’re kind of like, ‘What is this guy? What’s this all about?’”
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Pennyworth: The Origin Story of Batman’s Butler (Max)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Colin Hutton/HBO Max Staying on theme but leaving the world of animation, some fans might argue that Pennyworth is one of the best below-the-radar shows that ever came out of HBO/Max. There are no superheroes, and Bruce Wayne isn’t even born yet in this prequel show about Batman’s famed butler. But there are plenty of weird villains, ‘60s cult technologies and enough psychedelic storylines to grab your attention. Executive produced by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Pennyworth tells the story about young former British soldier Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon), who returns back to an alternate London where there is a civil war going on and public executions. A fascist group called the Raven Society puts Alfred in their crosshairs, but he befriends two CIA agents, Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane (the future parents of Batman), who, along with the British government and Pennyworth’s security agency, fight the anarchists. The series only ran for three seasons between 2019 and 2022, but can still be seen on Max. For now, Max has no plans to make a fourth season.
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Supernatural (The CW)
Image Credit: The CW It’s simple: Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), travel the country in a 1967 Chevy Impala hunting and taking down monsters. This show was one of The Boys’ creator Eric Kripke’s biggest hits, lasting a whopping 15 seasons on the CW network. And there is a good chance that many actors from the series, which ran from 2005 to 2020, will have found their way into The Boys universe (Ackles will be in a Boys prequel about Soldier Boy); Kripke appears to be loyal to his talent. You can catch all 15 seasons on Netflix.
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Class of ‘09 (FX)
Image Credit: Richard Ducree/FX The first of eight episodes aired in May on FX. Class of ’09 follows seven recruits/FBI candidates at Quantico in 2009 through their friendships and careers in 2023, and how everything is put to test in the future year of 2034 when one of them helps develop an AI software that changes the country into a dangerous Minority Report-like society, predicting crimes before they happen and arresting, or killing suspects, without due process. The limited series was created by Tom Rob Smith.
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Gen V (Prime Video)
Although The Boys is ending, the universe will continue. And one spinoff show that will surely make a comeback in the near future is Amazon Prime’s Gen V. The show explores the lives of young Supes (the names of those with superpowers in The Boys‘ world) at the Godolkin University School of Crimefighting. Most of the students there are hoping to learn how to control their unnatural powers, party hard and get laid. Others, however, feel like misfits in a world where the majority of people generally fear them, and their parents are putting pressure on so that their children may appeal Homelander and Vought International, and possibly one day land a spot in The Seven. Of course, when young and immature, calamity and violent deaths are sure to follow these young Supes as they struggle to find out who they are and where they fit in life. Until season two is released, viewers can catch season one on Prime Video.
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Those About to Die (Peacock)
Image Credit: Reiner Bajo/Peacock No, there aren’t any people with superpowers like The Boys. But the 10-episode series (that was released on Peacock July 18) still offers plenty of what attracted a mass audience to Eric Kripke’s flagship show: Blood, violence, betrayal and revenge. Created by Robert Rodat and starring Anthony Hopkins, Those About to Die explores the lives of brave and dangerous gladiators of Rome during Emperor Vespasian’s reign in A.D. 79, and the violent inner-tumultuous times leading to Rome’s decline sometime after the Year of the Four Emperors. There is enough mayhem, sex and gore galore to hold viewers until the final season of The Boys returns.
